Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As everybody who wants to speak has addressed the issue I will make some points before I call our witnesses. There are three phases to this, namely, prior to the vote, the vote itself and after the vote. All of these are fraught with challenges, opportunities and potential difficulties. The way I see the preparation time and the convergence is that, as members have acknowledged, the excellent academic work is being done. The part that is missing is political liaison and it is missing big time. With all our articulation here today, nobody from the unionist community is giving us their views. This is a huge gap.

The vote is one thing. The report itemises the difficulties of exercising the franchise in the North compared with England and Scotland. This is a major issue. If there is a referendum and it is lost, many people will be in an extremely difficult situation. If it is passed, there will be the alternative situation and it will also be difficult situation. How do we jump these fences in the timeline and preparation? The report has certainly brought about great discussion here today and it has been very welcome. I know the witnesses cannot address all of these issues.

No report is perfect, not even one with such excellent authors as our guests. I acknowledge the importance of the report. The key issue is that we have to bring everybody with us, or as many people as we can. The idea of 50% plus one will not work for a huge number of people and, therefore, we would be going backwards and not forwards. We have to get it absolutely right. I thank the witnesses and ask them to summarise.